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55.4%ANMag Issue 23 Personal Maintenance
Kinda Real Column: Cultural Clash
By Kinda Adra Mugharbel, Staff Writer
Beirut, Lebanon – One of the most annoying things in life is “Culture Clash”. I have been to the United States, Europe, India and the Gulf and I have never felt this clash as strongly as I feel it with people here in my own country! Although in Lebanon we all share the same culture, we come from different backgrounds, different religions, and different financial standards as all other countries do. But unfortunately, it is only in our country that I strongly “feel it!”
In foreign countries, there are people who are rich and others who are poor. There are fancy houses and others that are moderate; there are highly educated people and others that are not. But if you look at them all and talk to them, you do not really see or feel that huge of a difference! But here in our country people of different standards treat each other differently and people of different religions rarely mingle. Some treat others coming from a different region or are from a different area as if they come from another planet!
In a perfect world, people should gather around and exchange cultures, habits, beliefs and traditions. Each could benefit from the other and ignore whatever is inconvenient with respect and without judgment. But in our world or better to say in “our country”, it seems to be impossible! It is better for a person to stick in his circle.
In one of the most expensive schools in the country, I heard a woman saying: “Oh, look at that lady over there; how did they except her son into this school! Didn’t they see how she dresses and how she talks? Shu Vulgaire!” Apparently, all the other women agreed with her. So in my opinion, that lady should not enroll her son in that school because he will clash with the other kids for they come from a different background, a background that does not approve of his! When a couple from different backgrounds, different religions or different social standards fall in love and get married, they will face many clashes down the road, if not with each other then with parents and friends. Each will believe that his/her way is better and refuse to switch to any other way. Some do switch for the sake of their marriage but end up miserable and resentful. Sometimes you meet a group of friends you find amusing, but with time you discover that you do not fit because it so happens that you come from the North and they come from the “North-East!” And this only happens with a bunch of “Lebanese friends!”
From another perspective, some people hate the background they come from and want to switch to another. So they ditch their families, childhood friends, traditions, beliefs and follow a different path with other people pretending to be one of them. These “wanna be’s” often end up miserable and alone because they will lose their origins and will not keep up with the others.
I do not know if I could call it Culture Clash because technically we all have the same culture, but apparently our culture has been divided into subdivisions. I know it is wrong and many times unfair but “flocks of a feather fly together;” it is how God intended it to be or he would not have created such different levels for the same culture and different pronunciations for the same language. So if a person wants to live happy and relaxed, s/he should stick to his flock for s/he will never be welcomed in another!